


Running Together

by eeveestho



Series: Yakulev Week 2014 [5]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Mentions of Dubcon, past Kuroo/Yaku, past Lev/other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-13 22:42:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2167917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeveestho/pseuds/eeveestho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yaku drives across the country to go to university and picks up a hitchhiker along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running Together

**Author's Note:**

> yakulev week - day 5: alternate universe

The land was flat, flat, flat. So incredibly flat. Nothing but farms as far as the eye could see. Yaku knew that the first three days were going to be mostly flat, but god, what he would give to see the Rockies.

“At least it’s progress,” he said aloud to himself, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “At least you’re not in Arkansas anymore.”

Yaku was on his way to Berkeley, California, to start university. With his stellar academics and heavy involvement with his high school’s volleyball team, he could have applied anywhere he wanted to go for university. He chose a school half an hour from the gayest city in the United States, naturally.

When he told his parents that he was going to Berkeley, instead of his father’s alma mater Notre Dame, they had a bit of a… falling out over it.  Or, more accurately, his father had told him that if he wanted to go suck dicks instead of going to heaven, he was to do without any money from them. Which was why he was driving across the country in his slightly beat-up Chevrolet instead of sitting in an airplane. He didn’t want to touch the money he had saved up from working in his father’s law office over the last few summers – that was for living expenses, at least until he got settled and got a job.

Yaku glanced down at the clock. 3:42. He still had four hours and eighteen minutes of driving before he was to stop for the night in Flagstaff. He let out a sigh, trying not to think about the fact that he was only in his second day of driving and still had two more to go. It was worth it, he reminded himself, it was worth it… San Francisco… Berkeley…

In the distance, something interrupted the bland flat lifeless landscape. Yaku squinted at it, trying to make out what it was. Was it a sign? An advertisement, maybe? It was a bit small to be that – larger than life billboards were more the fashion in this region.

As he got closer, he realized it was a man, hitchhiking. He was tall and gangly, with silvery blonde hair. He looked young… maybe around Yaku’s age? He was wearing a sleeveless v-neck shirt and skinny jeans that were _very_ flattering to his figure. The tank top was clinging to his chest with sweat, and he could tell that underneath it was muscles that matched the ones on his arms… Yaku got a sudden sick feeling as he realized what kind of person might pick up a young, attractive guy on the side of the road. It was dangerous, hitch hiking like this down a highway when you were so young… Before he knew what he was doing, he found himself slowing down and stopping. The man came jogging towards Yaku’s car, his backpack bouncing up and down as he ran.

“Hey, thank you so much,” the man panted as he opened the car door and got in. “I really appreciate it. I’ve been standing out there for like 2 hours without anyone stopping.”

“Well, it is illegal to pick up hitch hikers,” Yaku said. Immediately he hated himself: he sounded _just_ like his father raised him to sound, like a snobbish asshole.

The man didn’t seem to notice as he pulled the seatbelt over himself. “Not in Texas!” he said cheerfully. “Actually, it’s mostly legal in 44 states. Where are you from? I’m Lev, by the way, Lev Haiba.”

Yaku didn’t start driving yet. He looked over at his new passenger. He really was as young as Yaku thought. There was no baby fat on that lean frame, but his features were still soft and boyish somehow.

He let out a sigh. Alright, he wasn’t gonna let this kid stand on the side of the road and wait for some trucker to pick him up and… do god knows what with him. But he had to set out some ground rules.

“I’m Yaku,” he said shortly, not wanting to give out his first name for some reason. “Look, here are the rules, okay? I’m heading to California, and I’ll take you as far as you need as long as you don’t fuck around. No drugs whatsoever, keep your feet off the dashboard, and do not touch the radio station. I’m not buying your food, and you’re not driving my car.”

“I can’t drive anyways,” Lev said with a shrug.

“Great. Okay, when we stop for the night, you’re not sharing the motel room with me. You sleep in the car. And I swear to god if I wake up and you’ve touched _anything_ , or if the car is gone, I’m calling the cops and getting them on your ass. I doubt there’s many Lev Haibas in the southwest, and my father is _very_ well connected.” Not that his father would want to help his cock-sucking son, but Lev didn’t need to know that.

Lev grinned. “Sure. Whatever you say, Yaku.” There was a playful glint in his eyes that Yaku did not like at all.

He stared him down. “I will kick you out of my car on the side of the road to die if you fuck around, I mean it.” And with that, he shifted the car into gear and pulled back onto the road.

After no more than 10 seconds, Lev spoke up. “So, where are you from, Yaku?”

“Little Rock, Arkansas.”

“Why are you going to California?”

Yaku gave Lev a sidelong glance. “Are you a chatty person? Because I’m not.”

Lev shrugged. “I figure if we’re gonna spend the next three days together, we might as well get to know each other a bit.”

“Three days?”

“Yeah. You’re going to California, right? Takes three days to get there from here. I’m headed for San Francisco, but I mean however far you can take me is good.”

Yaku had not counted on this gangly stranger being in his car for the next three days. He had thought he would have a companion for maybe the next _day_. He wondered if it would be awful to change his mind and kick Lev out of his car now, out of sheer apprehension of the next three days.

No. He picked him up because he needed help, and – at this point – seemed relatively normal and non-murderous. Besides, it would be good to know someone in the Bay area. There was nothing wrong with making friends.

“…I’m going to Berkeley. University.”

Lev whistled under his breath. “Wow, that’s a good school, isn’t it?? You must be really smart, to go there. What year are you?”

“First.”

“Hey, so you’re the same age as me!” Lev said with excitement. “I’m seventeen. Well, turning eighteen in October.”

“You going to university, too?” Yaku asked, with mild interest.

Lev let out a laugh. “Oh, hell no.”

Yaku waited for more information, but Lev didn’t reply it, merely stared out the window at the wheat fields rushing by. The only noise in the car was the radio, quietly playing some song Yaku didn’t recognize.

“Hey, I know you said I couldn’t touch the radio, but can I turn it up for this song?” Lev asked, turning back to look at Yaku, grinning widely.

“No.”

“…Oh.”

A few moments later, Yaku turned up the volume a few notches, in spite of himself, and Lev grinned at him.

The time did pass a bit faster with Lev sitting there beside him. There was a lot of comfortable silence, with Lev staring out the window and Yaku focusing on driving, but there was also a lot of chatting, swapping stories. Lev turned out to be from Canada – someplace called Antigonish in  
Nova Scotia?

“Why are you going all the way to California?” Yaku asked.

“San Francisco is the promised land,” Lev hummed, looking out the window with his head cupped in his hand, his elbow propped up against the windowsill. “Land of rainbows and drag queens as far as the eye can see. Plus, my sister lives there, so I’m gonna live with her.”

Yaku scoffed. “You’re gay, then?”

Lev turned to look at him. He was very serious, more serious than Yaku had seen him so far. It sent a bit of a shiver up his spine. “Is that a problem?”

He shook his head, letting himself smirk a bit. “Why do you think I’m going to Berkeley when I’m from Arkansas?”

His serious face twitched slowly into a smile as he got the meaning of Yaku’s words. Yaku smiled back, and then turned back to look ahead at the road.

With that confession between them, the air changed somehow. They stopped being two strangers in a car and became two boys running towards the same thing. Maybe running _away_ from the same thing, too.

They got drive thru burgers for dinner and ate them in the car, which Yaku got a private thrill out of every time. When he was growing, eating food in the car was forbidden. Now that he had his own car, he took every opportunity he could to eat in it.

Eventually they did reach Flagstaff and found a motel near the highway exit that had vacancies. It looked fairly dirty and poorly kept, but Yaku didn’t really care at that point – he just wanted somewhere cheap to rest his head.

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Lev said, digging into his backpack to pull out a yellowed paperback book.

“What? Come in,” Yaku said, frowning with confusion at Lev.

Lev returned the confused frown. “I thought I was supposed to sleep in the car?”

“…Well, yeah, but you’re not gonna sleep for awhile, right? You can, like, come watch TV or whatever for awhile.”

Lev stared at him, that same very serious stare as earlier, and Yaku shivered again. His gaze felt like it cut right through Yaku: through all his layers and defenses and security measures, right to the very core of him.

But after a moment, almost as if Yaku had imagined it, Lev’s face returned to its usual cheerful expression and he nodded, shoving the book unceremoniously back in the backpack and opening the car door to follow Yaku into the motel room.

Yaku walked in front of Lev towards the door, but was extremely aware of how _tall_ Lev was. It was one thing to see him standing next to his car, or to see his long limbs folded up awkwardly in Yaku’s car. It was another to actually stand beside him and see the huge gap of difference.

“You sure are short, huh?” Lev said conversationally from behind him.

He turned his head to glare up at Lev over his shoulder. “Make another height comment and you’re never getting back in my car.”

Once they got into the room, Yaku toed off his shoes at the door out of habit and walked across the room to flop down on the far bed. He had gotten a room with two queen size beds because, for whatever inexplicable reason, it was cheaper than a room with one king size bed. He looked over at Lev, who was also taking off his shoes.

“I wondered earlier, but… are you part Japanese?” Yaku asked, rolling onto his back, watching Lev line his shoes up neatly against the wall.

Lev straightened up into his full height. “Uh, yeah. Half-Russian, half-Japanese. You’re Japanese, right?” At Yaku’s nod, he smiled sheepishly. “Please don’t try to speak to me in Japanese. I don’t know anything. Or any Russian either. Hell, I hardly know French, and I grew up in Canada.”

Yaku chuckled. “That’s fine. I only know Japanese because I was forbidden to speak English at home.”

“Forbidden?” Lev said incredulously. “Does your dad not know English very well or something?”

“Nah, he was born in Maryland. He just wanted to preserve the culture, or whatever.” Yaku grabbed the remote off the bedside table and turned the TV on. He didn’t want to continue this conversation particularly. He didn’t want to think about his father, if he could help it.

Lev flopped down on his bed, belly first. His legs kicked back and forth in the air lazily, his head propped up on his elbows. He looked like a little kid, Yaku thought with amusement. He was the same age as Yaku, but he seemed much younger somehow.

They settled on watching a somewhat ridiculous, strangely interesting survivalist reality show. Yaku let his eyes rest shut for a few minutes, his arms folded behind his head against the headboard. Driving was strangely exhausting, and it felt nice not to have to look at anything for once.

“Yaku? Are you asleep?”

“Mmm, no. Just resting my eyes.”

“I can go back to the car, if you want,” Lev offered. Yaku opened his eyes and looked over at him. His head was resting on his folded arms, turned to look over at Yaku. His long legs had stopped swinging back and forth, and his feet rested instead on the top edge of the headboard.

“Nah, it’s okay, you can stay for now.”

Lev was silent for a moment, looking at Yaku, and then back at the TV.

“You look really tired…”

Yaku let his eyes close again. “Mmm, yeah, a bit. It’s been a long day.”

“Just want to relax, eh? Let the tension out.”

“Yeah.”

Yaku faintly registered the shifting of bedsprings, but didn’t think anything of it until he felt his own bed dip down. He opened his eyes to see Lev’s face mere inches from his own, his eyes lidded and his wet lips parted slightly.

“I could help out with that…” he purred, and Yaku felt his long fingers reaching down to trace a line from Yaku’s sternum to his crotch. He pressed the heel of his hand against Yaku, and Yaku let out a gasp at the feeling, unable to stop himself. Lev grinned softly, and began to lean forward, his long-lashed eyes fluttering shut, but then Yaku came to his senses.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he screeched, his arms scrambling out from under his head to push Lev away from him. He fell to the ground between the beds with a loud, resounding _thud_ , his eyes flying open in wide-eyed shock.

“I… was gonna help you out?” he said hesitantly. “As thanks for helping me out?”

A cold, sick feeling washed over Yaku. That was supposed to be repayment for giving Lev a ride? “What the fuck is that?” Yaku shouted. “I just met you! What do you think I am, some pervy old truck driver who only picked you up so you’d get me off?!”

Lev’s face hardened. “How the hell do you think I got to Texas from Nova Scotia, Yaku?” he said coldly, as he struggled to get to his feet. “It wasn’t on smiles and thank-you’s, I’ll tell you that.”

The sick feeling in Yaku’s gut deepened, and he pulled his car keys out of his pockets and threw them at Lev. “Get out of here, go sleep in the car!” he yelled. “I don’t want to be in the same room with you anymore!”

“Fine, okay, whatever, sorry for like insulting your honour or whatever,”  Lev snorted derisively, grabbing his backpack off the bed and shoving his shoes on. He slammed the door behind him, and Yaku stared at the closed door, breathing heavily.

He sank back down onto his bed, letting out a long breath. Lev’s words were echoing in his mind, over and over again. ‘ _How do you think I got to Texas from Nova Scotia?’_ He hadn’t thought about it. He hadn’t wanted to. He wanted to believe that people like him had picked up Lev; he wanted to believe that someone saw a teenager, a _teenager_ , standing on the side of the road and had some human kindness.

Suddenly he remembered when Lev had first gotten into his car. _‘I’ve been standing out there for like 2 hours without anyone stopping.’_ He remembered the way his tank top had been sticking to his chest, soaked with sweat. The way that Lev still smiled, still was so friendly, when he got into Yaku’s car.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t _right_. He was seventeen. What if Yaku didn’t have a car, and had to hitchhike his way to Berkeley? Would he have to do what Lev had to do to get where he wanted? Maybe he had been too harsh on Lev…

Suddenly, unbidden, unwanted, visions of Lev, long lashed and pink-lipped, swam into his mind’s eye. The feeling of his fingers tracing down his pelvis teasingly, the roll of his hand against Yaku, the way he stared at him with that twinkle of mischief and a heady heat that made Yaku’s breath catch in his throat.

Fuck. He rolled over into his bed, trying to ignore the tightness in his pants, hiding his red face in the pillows.

The next morning, Yaku woke up at 5am, as the sun streamed through the motel  window directly into his face. He had forgotten to shut the black-out curtains before he went to sleep the night before. He woke with a curse, trying to twist his body away from the light, but he knew it was useless: he was awake now, and he was going to stay awake, no matter what he did.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, cracked his stiff neck, looked over at the empty bed beside him, and was immediately overcome by guilt. What the fuck was he doing, making Lev sleep in the car? What kind of asshole was he, seriously?

Yaku slid out of bed, still only wearing a t-shirt and boxers that served as his pyjamas, and trudged towards the motel room door, slipping his shoes on. He shuffled out to the car parked directly outside and peered in the window. Lev was curled up on the backseat, using a beach towel as a blanket and his backpack as a pillow, sound asleep. Yaku stared blearily at him. He was going to tell Lev he could use the shower, come inside, get changed, brush his teeth, but he had forgotten that, oh yeah, it was 5am and most people would still be asleep.

He trudged back inside, jotted a note on a piece of notepad paper provided by the motel, and then went back out to the car, intending to open the door and put it on top of Lev so he would see it when he woke up. As he got out to the car, he realized that Lev still had the keys. He stared in the car window at Lev, and then sighing, rapped on the window above Lev’s head. He had tried.

Lev woke up slowly, curling up and then stretching out like a cat waking up after a nap. He looked up at Yaku, his face blissful and blank from sleep. When he registered who was looking down at him, though, it was like a metal shutter slammed down over his eyes – they were cold, impersonal, and almost bored. It was horrifyingly familiar, and for half a second, Yaku felt like he was staring into his father’s face.

He put the note on the glass so Lev could read it, and after a moment of squinting at the scribbled words, Lev nodded and curled back up underneath the beach towel.

Yaku let out a sigh and went back to the hotel room, deciding to take his own shower in the meantime, while Lev slept a little more.

As he washed himself, Yaku thought about Lev and how to make it right. He fucked up, he knows that. He ruined the fragile kinship they had managed to build over the day before. He needed to make it right, but he didn’t have any idea how to do that. He didn’t even know what Lev wanted from him, other than to drive him to San Francisco. Was that it then? Was that all they were now? Just… driving partners?

When he left the bathroom after his shower, a towel wrapped round his waist, he was hit with the distinct smell of eggs. He looked over at the beds to see Lev sitting on the far bed, watching cartoons on the TV. On the desk of the motel room sat a greasy brown paper bag.

“I bought breakfast,” he said, looking over at Yaku. His gaze was still cool, but slightly less icy than earlier.

“Thanks,” Yaku said, raking a hand through his wet hair. He noticed Lev watching the path his hand took.

“I know you said that we would split meals,” Lev said, turning his gaze back to the TV, “But I owed you one. Y’know, for driving me to San Francisco.”

“Oh.” So they were just gonna dive right into it, huh? Yaku supposed that was probably healthier. “Look, about yesterday…” he began as he pulled on a pair of boxer shorts under his towel.

“I just,” Lev said, cutting him off, his eyes steady on the TV, “I don’t like owing anyone things. You know? That’s part of the reason why I left. I don’t want to answer to anyone but myself, at the end of the day.”

“I’m sorry for how I reacted,” Yaku muttered. “I was just… surprised. I didn’t expect anything like that from you at all. When I picked you up, it was because I didn’t want you to have to… blow some trucker dude to get by.”

“What, so I’m some damsel in distress who needs rescuing from truckers?” Lev scoffed.

“Clearly not,” he sighed. “I’m obviously still getting to know you.”

“Yeah.”

“…Tonight, don’t sleep in the car, okay? Not unless you want to. That was a dick move. You should sleep in a bed.”

“Okay.”

Yaku waited for more of a response, but didn’t receive any. Lev kept watching TV as he got dressed. He kept expecting Lev to look over, to watch him change. His skin buzzed with anticipation, snippets of memory of the night flashing before his eyes. But he didn’t. Apparently this cartoon was much more interesting than Yaku’s semi-nudity. He didn’t know why that disappointed him so much.

“Are you gonna go take a shower?” Yaku asked, as he took the greasy bag from the desk and padded over to his bed with it.

“Mmm, eventually. After this show ends.”

Yaku looked up at the TV. It was some animated animals smacking each other around with oversized mallets. It was kind of weird, but whatever.

He glanced over at Lev, who seemed almost unnaturally quiet. “Hey,” he said uneasily, “Are we cool?”

Lev turned to look over his shoulder at Yaku. There was the barest hint of a smile on his mouth. “Yeah, Yaku, we’re cool.”

Returning the smile, Yaku reached into the bag and pulled out a wrapped breakfast sandwich, one of two at the bottom of the bag. He ate them silently, watching the cartoon with Lev.

He was halfway through his second sandwich when the cartoon ended and Lev got up from the bed with a sigh. He looked over at Yaku, fingers and lips greasy with his breakfast, and smiled softly. “There, you ate. Now we’re even, right?”

Yaku nodded mutely, his mouth full of egg and bacon.

“Good. Now you can rest assured that everything I do from now on is out of me wanting to do it and not a sense of gratitude.” And with that frankly ominous statement, Lev whipped off his shirt and shimmied out of his jeans at an alarming speed, leaving him in just his briefs. With a last grin thrown Yaku’s way, he walked confidently past his bed and to the bathroom, almost strutting like a model.

And Yaku tried very hard not to choke on his breakfast sandwich, and to not let his mind wander away down any dark paths.

After Lev had got showered and dressed (with apparently no regard for modesty at all, much to Yaku’s dismay), they checked out of the hotel and got back into the car. The destination for that night was Bakersfield, California.

“Just think,” Yaku said, as they pulled back onto the interstate, “In roughly eight hours we’ll be in California.”

Although Yaku was somewhat hesitant about how that day was going to go, after the events of last night, it seemed to be alright. Lev was quiet at first, but that seemed to be mostly just tiredness. As the sun rose higher in the sky, Lev became as chatty and mildly irritating as the day before.

“So, you’re gay, right?” Lev said, turning to look at Yaku.

“Yep, sure am,” Yaku said, with a grimace. It still felt strange to say aloud.

Lev’s wolfish grin was vaguely unsettling. “Okay, so, if you got to sleep with any celebrity, who would you choose?”

Yaku turned back to look at the road. “Chris Evans.”

“Dang, that was fast.”

“It’s Chris Evans. Who _doesn’t_ wanna bang him?” Yaku said, gesticulating towards the road.

Lev let out a thoughtful hum. Yaku looked at him sideways. “Are you telling me you don’t wanna sleep with Chris Evans?”

“Well, no, I never said that,” Lev scoffed. “But like, is he _the_ most bangable celebrity?”

Yaku stared at him, deadpan. “Yes. Yes, he is.”

“Mmmmmm,” he hummed thoughtfully again.

“Oh my god, are you like into old dudes? Like do you think… Richard Gere is hot, or something?”

Lev shrugged. “He is pretty good looking.”

Yaku let out a groan, shaking his head slowly. “Ohhhh my god, you’re into old dudes.”

“Like my truckers, eh?” Lev said, with a wink and a grin. Yaku let out a snort of laughter, and then stopped, looking over at Lev. Was that a joke? Was he supposed to laugh? Was it okay to laugh??

But Lev was smiling too, in a very satisfied way. “That was a test,” Lev said. “You passed.”

“A test of what?”

“To see how far the stick up your ass reaches.”

“I’m gonna make you walk to San Francisco, I swear,” he said with a grin.

“No, you won’t, Yaku,” Lev replied easily, returning the grin.

After glancing over at him for a moment, Yaku made a decision. “My first name is Morisuke,” he confessed, after a few moments of silence. “But I don’t like my first name. All my friends call me Yaku.” Well, his one friend, Kuroo, called him Yaku.

“Alright, Yaku.”

Yaku smiled at Lev, and saw that he was smiling softly to himself too.

They spent a lot of that day talking about their lives before they met. Their families, their schools, their hometowns. Lev apparently had five siblings, all older, who were all extremely overbearing and babying. He complained with irritation about his mother fretting over him and his siblings teasing him, but all it sounded like to Yaku was a loving – if chaotic and claustrophobic – family.

When he told Lev about his own family, in which he was the only son and was only paid attention to if he was being useful. He didn’t talk at length about his family, wanting sincerely – and failing, for the most part – to forget them all.

They talked about crushes, about when-did-you-know, about pretending they weren’t. It amazed Yaku, that even though they came from such different places, from such different families, and seemed for all intents and purposes to be completely different people, how similar they were when it mattered and how well they seemed to click.

Awhile later, in the mid-afternoon, as  they were driving through a long winding series of mountain passes, having not spoken for quite some time, Lev turned to Yaku and said, “Riker Lynch.”

“What?”

“Riker Lynch. That’s who I’d bang.”

Yaku stared at him incredulously for a few moments, before turning his attention back to the road. “Okay, first off, have you been thinking about that all this time?”

Lev shrugged. “On and off, yeah.”

“Secondly, who the hell is Riker Lynch??”

“Uh, he had a minor role in the hit TV series Glee. Duh,” he said in a slight Valley Girl accent.

Yaku looked over at him again. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“No, he’s really cute!” Lev protested

He wrinkled his nose. “What does he look like?”

“Did you ever watch Glee?”

Yaku gave him a death glare that suggested that the answer was no.

“Okay, well, he’s like… kinda blonde and twinky, I dunno. Very cute.”

He let out a soft snort of laughter. “Sounds like you.”

Lev chuckled a bit. “Got me there, yeah.”

“Maybe you’re just extremely attracted to yourself.”

“Obviously. Who wouldn’t be?”

“No idea.”

After a few moments, Lev turned to look at Yaku. He was wearing that serious expression again. “Are you attracted to me, Yaku?”

“W-what?” Yaku could feel the colour rising in his cheeks.

Lev turned back to look at the road. When Yaku glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes, he saw those soft lips in a slight pout. “I’ve been thinking about last night. I was wondering if you turned me down because you weren’t attracted to me.”

“That’s not why I turned you down!” Yaku said loudly, his voice edging on shrill. “I told you, it was because I didn’t want you to do something you didn’t want to do!”

“I never said I didn’t want to do it. You just assumed that.”

“You were just doing it out of obligation! Because I’m driving you to San Francisco!”

“You just assumed that!”

“You said you didn’t want to owe anyone anything!”

Lev sat in sullen silence for about half a minute. “So you don’t find me attractive, then?”

He let out a groan of exasperation. “Oh my god, Lev, really? Are we really going to do this?”

“Fine, whatever, forget I asked. I didn’t realize it was such a difficult question,” he huffed angrily, crossing his long armbs over his torso. “I think you’re hot as hell, for what it counts. See, that wasn’t difficult.”

Yaku let out a splutter, feeling himself blush even deeper.

It was difficult for him. He had only just come out of the closet… three days ago? Four? Before then, it had been his entire teenage years, since he first met his now-best friend Kuroo naked in the locker room in middle school. Until four days ago, the only one who had known about Yaku was Kuroo – and that was only because they fooled for awhile, and it was hard to deny you were attracted to guys when you were having sex with that guy. It was one thing to admit that distant celebrities were attractive, but… real people. That was more tricky.

Lev was humming along to a pop song on the radio when Yaku finally summoned up enough courage, nearly an hour later, to properly answer the question.

“Yes, I think you’re attractive,” he said loudly, so he wouldn’t have to repeat himself.

Lev stopped humming and turned to look at him. “Really?” he said, grinning wide.

“Yeah, you’re very attractive,” Yaku muttered, almost angrily, feeling the blush spreading down his neck. “Like… last night, when you tried to… y’know. That was. Yeah.”

His happy grin altered slightly, becoming more of a smirk. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really. Shut up.”

Lev hummed thoughtfully, still smirking at Yaku, who pretended to be very, very fascinated by the road ahead of them.

Because of how early in the morning they got started, they reached their destination by around 6pm, and, after they checked into a dinky motel near the interstate exit, went and grabbed dinner at an IHOP about half a block away from their hotel. Yaku had wanted to try to find some local restaurant to try, but Lev saw the huge IHOP sign from the interstate and immediately demanded that they go get pancakes for dinner.

“It almost seems like a waste of a day,” Yaku commented, as they left the IHOP awhile later, “To just head back to the hotel and watch bad TV. The sun is still up, we’re young, we’ve got nothing else to do…”

“We’re on a roadtrip across the country,” Lev added. “Something should definitely happen. We should go on an adventure.”

He sighed slightly. “I don’t think I have the energy for an adventure, Lev.”

“Then… how about we watch someone else have one?”

They ended up going to see a movie at a local movie theatre. They just picked whatever movie was going to start next which, to Lev’s delight and Yaku’s horror, was a romantic comedy.

“We can just wait for the next one, can’t we?” Yaku protested, as they stood in line to buy tickets. “Anything else. Anything. I’ll go see that movie about the talking penguins, Lev, I swear.”

“Nothing else starts for an hour and a half,” he said, grinning and bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “C’mon, Yaku, try something new! It’s an adventure!!”

Normally, Yaku _hated_ romantic comedies. They were boring, predictable, and full of intensely aggravating misunderstandings that would be cleared up in about 5 seconds if the characters would just _talk to each other_ instead of assuming things. But with Lev beside him, who, despite loving romantic comedies, also loved to talk during movies, it was almost entertaining. Lev would make quiet jokes in his ear, his warm breath tickling at the hairs there, and Yaku would laugh breathlessly, blood rising to his cheeks. Lev’s long legs were spread wide in his seat, brushing up against Yaku’s, and when they would go to get some popcorn from their shared popcorn bag, sometimes their fingers would brush.

It felt, for all intents and purposes, like a date.

“See? Wasn’t that fun?” Lev said cheerfully as they left the theatre two hours later, grinning down at Yaku.

“Yeah, kinda, I guess,” Yaku said, grinning a little too. “It wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it’d be.”

“You’re so cynical, Yaku.”

“You love it.”

“Yeah.”

Yaku looked up at Lev. His voice had gone kind of soft, and he saw that his gaze had too. Yaku turned his head away quickly, feeling his heart pound a little harder. Oh, this was dangerous. This was very dangerous, indeed.

But then again, he thought, as he buckled his seatbelt a few moments later, why was it so dangerous? He liked Lev, Lev seemed to like him too… Would it really be so bad if something did happen?

“You’re quiet,” Lev commented, as they pulled back into the motel parking lot. He was looking at Yaku sidelong, almost out of the corner of his eye. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, shaking his head slightly to clear his mental fog. “Just… thinking.”

“Hmmm. Don’t think so hard. You should just let yourself go along with the flow more often, Yaku.”

There it was, that soft voice again. And – yep, there was the matching look. The look that was so similar to the look Lev had given him as he stroked his hand down Yaku’s body the night before. But, it was a little different. The mischief was gone, replaced by something much more… soft. Vulnerable.

They entered the room where they had already dropped off their bags earlier and flopped down on the beds. Yaku turned on the TV, but wasn’t really watching it. He just wanted something to fill the heavy silence between the two of them.

He kept sneaking glances at Lev. Lev was lying on his back, his arms folded over his eyes, one of his legs folded under the other. He was just lying there silently, his chest rising and falling silently.

“You asleep?” Yaku asked, after twenty minutes had passed without Lev moving or speaking.

“Nah. Just thinking.”

“Don’t think so hard,” Yaku said, echoing his own words back at Lev.

Lev lowered his arms off his face. “You know that everything I’m doing now is out of me wanting to, not out of obligation, right?” He had that serious face on, and it sent frissons of anticipation through Yaku’s spine, right down to his gut where it morphed into bubbling heat.

“Yeah, I know that,” he replied quietly.

“I want to kiss you, Yaku.”

He said it so straightforwardly, so honestly, looking him straight in the eyes. Yaku would never understand how he could do that, without the faintest trace of a blush.

“Okay,” he heard himself saying. “I want you to kiss me too.”

Lev swung his legs over the side and moved in one fluid motion to kneel one leg on the edge of the bed, moving forward to kiss Yaku, his large hand cupping the side of his face. As he began to kiss him back, Yaku felt Lev sigh into the kiss, felt the tension dissipate out of his body, felt his hand soften against his skin. Yaku moved his hands to pull Lev more onto the bed, pulling him so that he was straddling Yaku’s lap. His hands moved up to thread through Lev’s soft hair, and as he knotted his fingers in the strands he felt, rather than heard, Lev moan softly.

They made out for awhile longer, hands wandering, touching, groping, stroking, pulling. Yaku broke away to pull off Lev’s shirt, stroking his fingers along the hard curves and divots of the muscles there.

“Fuck, you’re hot,” he muttered as the mouthed at Lev’s neck, making Lev moan and buck his hips forward. Yaku could feel Lev getting harder against his leg, and he moved his hands to grip at Lev’s ass, cupping him and pushing his hips forward to roll against Yaku’s.

“Please, please, please, Yaku,” Lev whimpered breathlessly. “Please, I want it, please, please, please.”

“I know,” Yaku murmured, stroking his hands up and down Lev’s sides, pressing a soft kiss to his shoulder. “I know.”

When Yaku woke up the next morning, it was not at 5am. Lev had remembered to close the curtains last night before he had crawled into his own bed, stumbling jelly-limbed in his afterglow. Yaku rolled over to look at Lev, who was still asleep. Yaku had made him sleep in the other bed – he still didn’t like sleeping in the same room as other people, never mind in the same bed. Just because they had sex didn’t mean they had to sleep next to each other and fight over blankets.

Lev looked peaceful and happy, clutching a pillow to his chest, his mouth slack, drool pooling on his pillow. Yaku watched him for awhile.

Today was the last day of the road trip. After a four hour car ride, they would be in San Francisco. After a four hour car ride, Lev would be gone.

Yaku sighed and turned away from the sleeping man. There was no use trying to fight it. All good things came to and end, and there was no way Lev would want to hang out with Yaku when he wasn’t driving him where he needed.

Sure, fooling around in a hotel room was one thing, but Yaku knew better than most that sex didn’t mean love. And Lev knew that too, from the sounds of it. Even if it wasn’t an obligation fuck, it was still something transient, something impermanent. No one wanted to keep Yaku in their lives for very long, he knew.

With a grunt, he got to his feet and shuffled over to the bathroom, wanting to wash his melancholy down the drain along with the traces of last night still on his skin.

Lev was up when he got out of the shower, sitting on the bed, watching cartoons. His blankets were bunched up over his lap, but his smooth chest was bare and he was presumably naked. His silvery blonde hair stuck up at funny angles from sleep, and Yaku let out a quiet laugh as he looked at him.

“Morning, beautiful,” Lev said, with a sleepy smile, as Yaku’s laugh alerted him to his presence.

“Morning, buttface,” he replied, ignoring the bloom of warmth in his gut at the compliment. Lev scoffed, but didn’t look offended, thankfully.

“You should take a shower,” Yaku said, hopping into his boxers. He didn’t bother with trying to hide behind a towel this morning. Lev had seen everything in pretty exquisite detail last night. Besides, it’s not like it mattered in the long term if he saw him naked.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You sound like my mom.”

Yaku wrinkled his nose as he pulled his jeans on, perching on the end of his bed. “That’s like the least sexy thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Good. I’d be worried if it was the _most_ sexy.”

“Mm, no, I’m pretty sure you topped that last night.”

Lev tossed a fond grin over at Yaku, which sent another torrent of warm happiness gushing through him. Ah, right, he reflected quietly. This was why it was dangerous to get involved with Lev. He had forgotten in the heat of things why it was dangerous to get attached, to develop feelings.

He wondered if he should bring it up now. Ask what they were, what this meant, what they would be tomorrow. He didn’t want to. Yaku wanted to keep up the illusion of normalcy, of happiness, as long as possible. Why confront the truth if they still had four hours left together? Wasn’t it best to just enjoy what little time they had left?

Lev went off to have a shower, and Yaku sat on his bed, looking at the TV but not seeing it, overcome with thoughts of what in god’s name he should try to do about this mess.

Best case scenario, Lev wanted to date him. They only lived about half an hour apart, in theory. That wasn’t so bad. Worst case scenario, Lev said goodbye when the time came to it and they never saw each other again.

Either way, there was nothing Yaku could do about it. He wanted to keep in touch with Lev, but, as with seemingly everything else this trip, it was a question of what Lev wanted.

And Yaku didn’t think that he was quite prepared to find out exactly what it was that Lev wanted.

They set out shortly after Lev got dressed, getting some more drive thru food for breakfast. The thing was, Yaku reflected, when he was with Lev, it was easy. It was incredibly easy. There wasn’t a question of what they were, what they would be. It was just fun. Lev made him happy and he made Lev happy, it was as simple as that. It was only when Yaku was left alone inside his own head that he started to question everything.

Unfortunately, the next four hours was spent next to Lev, and so time flew by much, much too fast. Before he knew it, he was pulling off the interstate at the exit to San Francisco, Lev pulling a wrinkled piece of paper with directions on it out of his backpack.

Lev didn’t seem to realize that being dropped off at his sister’s meant the end of… whatever this was. He was quite cheerful as he told Yaku where to turn, how much further it was, and before Yaku knew it he was pulling over in front of a blue and white condo where Yaku’s sister lived.

“Well, here we are!” Lev said brightly, shoving the piece of paper back into his bag. “Thank you for driving me all this way, Yaku. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem,” he replied automatically. What was this? What was this strangely formal, strangely casual thing? Was that it? Was that how it was going to end? So long and thanks for the amazing sex??

He had to try. He had to ask. He couldn’t just leave it like this. He couldn’t just let Lev go so easily.

“Um, Lev,” he spoke up, his voice shaking a bit. “So, my dorm is only about half an hour away, and… um… I was wondering if maybe, y’know, you wanted to… stay in touch? It would be good to have a friend in the area, don’t you think?”

“A friend?” Lev said, with a frown.

Oh _god_ , had he misjudged that badly? They weren’t even friends. Of course they weren’t. They were just travel partners who happened to hook up. What did he think this relationship was, anyways? How did he let himself get so confused? “I mean… someone you know, at least,” Yaku said weakly, trying to ignore the curling pit of despair and shame growing in his chest, rising up to choke the air out of him.

“Yaku, do you just think of me as ‘someone you know’?”

Wait.

He looked at Lev, really _looked_ at him. His expression was neutral, but there was a bit of a downturn to his mouth that wasn’t normally there. The light that normally twinkled in his eyes was gone.

“I really like you, Yaku,” Lev said quietly. “I thought you did too.”

“I… I do.”

“Then why are you calling me ‘someone you know’? Or ‘a friend’?” he demanded. To Yaku’s horror, he saw tears beginning to form in the corners of Lev’s eyes.

“I… thought you were just… hooking up with me. That you were just riding with me until you got to your sister’s.”

Lev let out an angry scoff. “How many times do I have to tell you, Yaku?! Everything I’ve done is because I _wanted_ to do it! I didn’t have sex with you because I was bored, and I didn’t go see a romantic comedy with you because there was nothing else to do, and I didn’t tell you that I thought you were hot just for laughs!”

Yaku stared mutely at Lev. Tears were streaming down his face now, and Yaku had no idea what to do.

“I was going to invite you in to meet my sister, you idiot,” Lev muttered angrily, swiping at the tears trailing down his cheeks. “But then you had to open your mouth.”

“You were going to invite me inside?”

“I want to date you, Yaku! I want to keep talking to you! I don’t want this to end!” Lev yelled. “Is that not clear enough for you? Do you want me to fucking write it across the sky for you? Then will you believe me for once??”

“Maybe,” he said quietly, honestly.

Lev looked at him and sighed, tilting his head back against the seat. “Look, just come inside and stop being an idiot. How could you think I would just… give up on you, Yaku?”

Yaku spoke before he could stop himself, the truth forcing its way out of him. “Everyone else does.”

He frowned at Yaku. “Well, I’m not everyone else.”

He let out a laugh. That was for damn certain.

Lev sniffed deeply, rubbed at his eyes again, and then, picking up his bag and managing a smile at Yaku, said, “Let’s go, buttface.”

Yaku smiled back at him, nodding once. “Okay, beautiful.”


End file.
